Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Hello group of people that don't read anything I write, maybe you'll be reading this one day in the archives though. Today I sold some computer hardware that was given to me by my very generous uncle, may God bless him for that, and I received another client to do some tech work for, so hopefully everything will go smoothly with that.

On buying presents for people:

The key I think to buying presents for people can be summed up in a short little paragraph. Do not ever buy people stuff they will not want, even though you may like it yourself. This will always cause anxiety in most people because well, most people are pretty selfish, and I will be the first to admit, I often times fall into this mode of "Why would you buy me that?" mentality. Obviously we have to remember that Christ himself led a life of poverty and his predecessor St. John the Baptist probably even more so, who was an aspect of Christ if you think in theological terms. The most important thing about Christmas is to get gifts for people that reflect your love for those people and their well being and happiness. That means not buying people stupid garbage like videogames, bad films, and lude books or CD's. We don't want to offend the cute little baby Jesus in the manger. When you buy gifts for others think of Jesus's gift of his humanity, especially in his little hands and feet and you will be given the grace and light to understand how little we are ourselves are compared to him and how evil it is to lead others into sin. Try to get presents that will foster leisure and intellectual thinking or useful practicality. Certainly if we have read St. Thomas or Aristotle at all, we would be quick to pray and do all things for other people in order that they may foster an interior movement towards Christ. For most traditional Catholics I think there can be a temptation to only get specifically religious gifts for people during birthdays or holidays, and I find this a temptation that may not seem like a bad idea, but for those who do not care about the faith, getting them something that will bring them closer to you and to trust you more instead of a religious book per se, will give them the ability to see Christ more clearly in you if you are devout.

I hope this little tidbit will be of some help for you if you haven't already gotten all your gifts.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

As Fr. Demets would say: "Sooooooooo... How are you?" Heh. I wanted to post a few questions I had written about awhile back in my Journal, they are philosophical. I am a thomist, so if these questions bother you, well, I don't care! Great. Let's get started. So my first question is this: Could one say that for every act(tion) there is a perfect reaction, in so far as being and potentiality to act are concerned, understanding this within the context of sin playing a role?

So after pondering this question for a while with a friend of mine and I think one of my other friends, I would like to propose this. For every act that is done in so far as one is a participating being, that is a creature, each potential act is perfect, or once it is in being, is perfect in so far as it is an act which is in being, although it may contain the deprivation of a due good. Why? Because all acts and all being, in order to be, must contain some perfection; thus, they are perfect in so far as they are acting in that very moment, that is being. So for each act that is made, there is a perfect outcome of that act namely the ongoing potentiality to another act which is more perfect than the last. Though sin makes some acts evil, even though they still are in a sense perfect because all things in so far as they exist in God are perfect, which is ultimate act and ultimate being.

So I guess this is my first real post since the one before was kind of an introduction to the blog. I was kind of unsure about starting a blog since, well, I don't really want another reason to stay on the computer, but I figure this is a good way to keep me from playing videogames, which is an entirely unproductive, mindless, but incredibly fun, form of entertainment. Anyway, I just wanted to tell everyone who is reading this, which is practically no one, that if you could pray for my special intention that would be great.

Next, I want to say that I love and hate computers. I often wonder why when you buy a computer part half the time they don't work right. This is a notoriously reoccuring thing with computers, but I guess it is because they are so complicated. So, I build this new computer, but I got a lot of parts for free from my uncle, which was really awesome. I am using it right now, obviously, to do this post. It can play Crysis really well, which is an amazing game, even the demo is incredibly fun. I know, I know, who cares? I will be updating soon to discuss a few philosophical questions I have had recently, hopefully I could get some comments, that would be great. Maybe eventually I will put a forum on here when I relearn some HTML.

Yes, that is correct. I have started a blog, just like every other soul on earth. Maybe I will make some money doing it, hopefully. Anyway, this is a blog about what I think about life; hence, the name the Philosophy of Malcolm. So, this blog will be about everything that I think is important, with a Catholic twist of course. So... keep coming back or, in the words of my friend Michael, "you'll pay!"